[Please note that the views presented by individual contributors are not necessarily representative of the views of ATCA, which is neutral. ATCA conducts collective Socratic dialogue on global opportunities and threats.]

Make no mistake, the Bitcoin opportunity is creating a fast evolving trillion dollar new market in cryptocurrency eCommerce and more importantly mCommerce or mobile-Commerce. The future of cryptocurrencies is being secured right now with the launch of many new apps to enable digital cash, electronic payments and secure eWallets using cryptocurrencies via smart phones and other digital devices such as secure pens, sophisticated crypto-watches and customised memory sticks. Cryptocurrency adoption is growing very fast, in a similar exponential curve to the adoption of the world wide web in the years following 1995 or even the spread of electric power exactly a hundred years before that.

Cryptocurrency Opportunity

I am a British internet entrepreneur whose company mi2g -- military intelligence 2nd generation -- was founded in 1995 whilst I was reading for my PhD in super-computing at Imperial College, London. mi2g not only went on to win the Queen's award for innovation, it was also one of the fastest growing technology companies in the United Kingdom in its early years. We made more than GBP 100 million very quickly in those pioneering years alone from cryptography and delivering bespoke security architecture to corporations, banks, insurance and reinsurance companies as well as government agencies. Based on our experience, we can vouch for three points, regardless of whether Bitcoin succeeds or fails:

1. There is plenty of opportunity to make millions or even billions in this new business paradigm of cryptocurrencies and the enabling crypto-applications; secure eWallets, ePens, and eWatches; bespoke security architecture and digital infrastructure;

2. Watch out when Silicon Valley catches Bitcoin fever – as it now has – the entrepreneurs and venture capitalists being drawn to cryptocurrencies suggest that the biggest profits will come from using it to build a new digital finance industry rather than just as a vehicle for speculation; and

3. This is not tulip mania at the level of invention regardless of whether Bitcoin survives, crashes or gets superseded by more advanced cryptocurrency solutions. Why?

Cryptocurrencies solve many major problems not just in regard to international commerce but also in regard to humankind's search for monetary stability and transparency, particularly in the wake of the global financial crisis which began in 2007, and the subsequent co-ordinated inflation policies of excessive money printing. Specifically, cryptocurrencies:

1. Grant anonymity to the buyer without Big Brother privacy invasion;

2. Remove the friction of paying 3+% commission to credit card companies for the vendor;

3. Offer near universal convertibility even for softer currencies with border restrictions;

5. Set finite limits to the number of units that can ever be minted of a currency unlike major fiat currencies at present;

6. Address political risk caused by regime change or sudden change in laws which impact personal finance, private wealth and its confiscation.

Isn't all this getting us ever closer to the holy grail of friction-less digital commerce and removing the threat of 1984 -- Big Brother-- at the same time? No wonder the Chinese are worried and the People's Bank of China (PBoC) just banned Chinese financial institutions from carrying out transactions in Bitcoins. As Nikola Tesla, the brilliant inventor of electricity generation and distribution once said: "The spread of civilisation may be likened to a fire; first, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power!"

Don't hesitate: Carpe diem! Crypto currencies are here to stay regardless of whether each Bitcoin goes to USD 10,000 over the coming two years or crashes to USD 100. The question is whether one wants to make millions or billions as a pioneer offering solutions for handling cyptocurrencies? There is always more money in making and selling picks, shovels and buckets during a gold rush rather than naively running after that gold as all the rest are!

[STOPS]

What are your thoughts, observations and views? We are hosting an Expert roundtable on this issue at ATCA 24/7 on Yammer.

[ENDS]

Expert Roundtables

Expert roundtables are the newly launched ATCA 24/7 Q&A private exclusive club service. They seek to become the killer application in strategic intelligence by delivering an unprecedented competitive advantage to our distinguished members. They can only be accessed online at https://www.yammer.com/atca

Q1: How to become a privileged member of ATCA 24/7 to participate in the expert roundtables?

A1: i. If you are a distinguished member of ATCA 5000, ATCA Open, The Philanthropia or HQR affiliated groups you may be allowed to become a privileged member of this new and exclusive private club.

ii. If you are pre-invited, visit the private intelligence network -- PIN -- by going to https://www.yammer.com/atca [Note: In https:// 's' is for security and encryption]

iii. If you don't have membership of the PIN yet, email the mi2g Intelligence Unit at intelligence.unit at mi2g dot com for an exclusive invitation.

Q2: How to participate in the expert roundtables and get domain-specific strategic intelligence questions answered?

A3: ATCA 24/7 has now created an exclusive private intelligence watering hole and expert roundtable at the highest level where interesting and sophisticated questions are being asked from around the world, and intelligent answers are being provided, almost always by experts who have deep domain-specific knowledge. Come and check out the exclusive club, take it for a strategic test drive, which sign-of-intelligent life are you waiting for?

We welcome your thoughts, observations and views. To reflect further on this subject and others, please respond within Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn's ATCA Open and related discussion platform of HQR. Should you wish to connect directly with real time Twitter feeds, please click as appropriate:

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